UK braces for first doctor strike in decades

LONDON — With hours to go before the first doctors’ strike in 40 years, Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn warned that “fed up” physicians might look for work elsewhere.

The Labour leader has largely avoided the escalating fight between the Conservative government and the nation’s so-called junior doctors, as he grappled with his own internal political party problems. But Corbyn, who rarely gives interviews, weighed in Monday, underlining that England was the only nation in the U.K. clashing with doctors over their contracts.

“There is no doctors’ strike in Wales, there is no doctors’ strike in Scotland. They have reached sensible agreements with the junior doctors,” Corbyn told BBC Radio 4’s Today program. “How many are going to leave and go somewhere else because they are fed up with being treated by this government?”

If negotiators fail to reach a deal, as many as 30,000 junior doctors are expected to go on strike Tuesday at 8 a.m. London time for 24 hours — the first of three planned actions in the coming weeks over proposed changes to their hours and pay. More senior doctors known as consultants, other health care workers and potentially military doctors are expected to fill the void.

The mediator in the recent talks told POLITICO Monday there was no scheduled meeting with the involved parties before Tuesday’s strike.

Prime Minister David Cameron, questioned a few hours later on the same radio program, urged the doctors to abandon what he said was a “damaging” planned strike.

But a last-minute deal looks increasingly doubtful. The mediator in the recent talks told POLITICO Monday there was no scheduled meeting with the involved parties before Tuesday’s strike.

The action will be the first for the nation’s doctors since November 1975. It comes years into a cost-cutting campaign under Prime Minister David Cameron that has met increasing resistance from health care workers.

A second strike is scheduled for 48 hours from 8 a.m. on January 26, and a third will be a full walk-out from services, including emergency care, on February 10.

A BMA video urges doctors how they can “safely picket.” It says picket lines will run from 8 a.m. until 12.30 p.m. to “persuade” other doctors to participate and to communicate with staff about the reasons for their action.

Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn | Getty

Corbyn’s BBC interview comes just days after his party filed a complaint against the broadcaster for allegedly “orchestrating” the resignation of one of his shadow cabinet members live on air.

The political activist would not say if he would join doctors on the picket line Tuesday though said he sent a letter of support.

England goes it alone

In an unprecedented move, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have all taken a different stance than England over the contract negotiations.

“Usually, it’s agreement on a four-nation basis,” said Tim Jays, spokesman for Scotland’s Health Minister Shona Robison. “But when it broke down, we said that we would not impose any agreement. We would then work on agreements on principles in contracts in Scotland.”

Currently, there are no plans to change Scotland’s junior doctor contracts.

Robison said previously, if that was the case, Scotland would welcome England’s junior doctors to work in hospitals over the border.

Wales and Northern Ireland take similar positions. Neither plan to impose a contract on junior doctors unilaterally.

Health care workers in Northern Ireland are also fighting with their government over pay.

“I value the work of our junior doctors too much to threaten them with the enforcement of a new contract but they too have responsibilities,” Northern Ireland Health Minister Simon Hamilton,said in a statement emailed to POLITICO Monday.

“Just as imposing a new contract is far from ideal, so too is maintaining a contract that is broadly regarded as being unsatisfactory,” he said in a statement.

A spokesman for Mark Drakeford, the Wales health minister said: “We believe in proceeding through negotiation and partnership,” as opposed to imposing the contract.

Meanwhile, health care workers in Northern Ireland are also fighting with their government over pay.

Health Minister Hamilton on Monday announced a one percent pay increase, which health care unions called an “insult.” For most, it will be paid as a one-off amount, not added to the salary.